The following paragraphs are intended to introduce the reader to the more detailed description that follows and not to define or limit the claimed subject matter of the present disclosure.
The immune system provides protection against infectious agents, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. A substantial number of medical conditions are associated with a compromised immune system and an increased susceptibility to infectious agents. Thus, for example, patients undergoing surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, and those suffering from auto immune diseases and diseases interfering with a normal metabolic immune response, such as HIV (AIDS), are all at a heightened risk of developing pathological conditions resulting from infection. While pharmaceuticals—antibiotics, such as ampicillin, tetracycline and quinolones, for example, in the case of bacterial infections—offer treatment options, resistance of the infectious agent to these pharmaceuticals is an increasingly significant concern. Therefore, there is need for immune activating or modulating strategies to induce responses better able to prevent or combat infection. Furthermore, vaccines preventing or treating infection by many microbial organisms have been developed, however there is an ongoing need for additional vaccine formulations, as the immune stimulatory profile of known vaccine formulations is frequently suboptimal. Vaccines have also been proposed to help the immune system target cancerous cells or tissues, however there is a need to improve the immune response so that it can more effectively combat the cancer. Finally, there is ongoing need to alter pathogenic immune responses, and particularly pathogenic inflammatory responses, to reduce disease symptoms and/or progression.
Therefore there is a need in the art to develop further treatment and prevention options against infections caused by infectious agents, cancerous cells and immune or inflammatory diseases.